Sooooo, starting right where we lift of: I took my train from Sendai back to Tokyo, arriving early in the evening, but due to waking up early that day (and sleeping super late the previous night) I called it a day and went to bed.

Here is a 34 second time lapse from the ride back:

The day after that was the first day we didn’t do any car related activities, instead visited some of Tokyo’s well known hustling and bustling neighborhoods. Starting out with Harajuko. Very cool place to walk, not much I can say that wasn’t said by others, so I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Later in the evening we visited Kabukicho, a very special place for a video game nerds like me!

That was our last full day in Tokyo, as we would be taking a train to Osaka, early next morning!

A quick moment to talk about the rail system in Japan; it’s pretty amazing! It’s on time 98% of the time (made up percentage) it’s cheep, and the Shinkansen is very comfortable.

Anyways, we arrived at Osaka station in the afternoon, after checking in, we decided to head to Dotonbori since it’s within walking distance of the hotel. It’s around a 2km walk that should take fifteen minutes, but due to the sheer number of stores and attractions it took us around two hours, finally arriving at the bridge it was completely full with people, but the sight over the river made up for that. Dotonbori was also a place I had to visit (because of the same damn video game) crazy how it feels to visit a place you’ve seen so many times before without ever being near it.

We of course had to get lunch, and what better choice is there other than Kani Doraku the famous crab restaurant?! (Definitely didn’t go there because of said game mentioned before)

Food was good, I’m not too big on sea food but I’d recommend it.

After touring the area, we made our way across to Orange street, an area filled mostly with clothing brands and things of that sort, A side object of mine during the trip was to do a bit of personal shopping at Japanese clothing brands, and trying to find something new I’d like.

And yeah, we saw a cool s15 just parked outside some building!

Later that night we had dinner at a Kobe steak restaurant, all steak has been ruined for me after that night… because that was the best stake I’ve ever had! It was so soft, delicious, and tender. I’m drooling just thinking about right now lol.

Moving on.

Next day, we went to Kyoto. Around an hour ride using the highway. It was a cloudy day at first but rain started to pour before dusk, not the best weather to be wearing a Kimono, which is something I did…

But overall it was a wonderful place with lots of beautiful things to see.

And that’s that for the second day in Osaka.

the following day was spent with family at universal Studios. Was nice, but you can find a million pictures and reviews online so I won’t bore you with that.

On the last day in Osaka I had made plans to meet someone super cool, a foreigner who was able to make a name for himself in Japan for the past 20 years! And is one hell of a driver!

Most who order parts from Japan know him, he is the one and only… Jesse Streeter!

I had contacted him through email around a week earlier, to see if he had an hour or two during the time we’d be in Osaka. He replied and we were able to set a date. So that afternoon we took the train to his area, and continued the rest of the way in foot, a nice twenty minute walk, it was quite cold that day, with a bit of snow fall. We reached his shop, and an employee outside informed Jesse of our arrival. He came outside, greeted us and we started chatting right away! We started walking together in the neighborhood to go to the garage units where he keeps his cars. A total of five units I think, all scattered around the neighborhood. we chatted about how it was living in Japan for the past 20 years, the good, the bad, and the… unfortunate I’d say. Japan is a very different country compared to most, they have a lot of unspoken rules and exceptions. People can also be a bit superficial, and not express how they truly feel, which can lead to misunderstanding. In terms of car culture and how it’s perceived there it’s probably better than most places but still not perfect. Crack downs do happen by the police, and when they do them they go all out. But that usually only happens at big meets where street drifting happens or when some of the loud, modified cars meet closer to the city center. It’s possible to drive a modified car on the street as long as you are respectful, and they seem to not give people with modified cars that hard of a time according to Jesse.

After walking the neighborhood for around an hour, we made our way back to the shop and said goodbyes. Huge thank you to Mr.Streeter for chatting with us, and giving us the time of day!

Later that night we went to a place called Triangle Park, that area is usually a meeting spot for some of Osaka’s car enthusiasts during weekend nights. We went there around 9pm but most cars only started coming by 10:30pm which was a bit late since we had another train the next day going back to Tokyo. Not to mention that that was probably the coldest night of the trip. We stayed for a bit and chatted with a few locals, and called it a night.

And that’s that for Osaka, there was definitely a lot more to see, but we didn’t have as much time to do everything we could. So hopefully next time we get to spend a little bit more time exploring Osaka.

Next day we went back to Tokyo, since that’s where our flight departs from. I managed to squeeze in one last thing to do on the day we arrive at Tokyo. a week before our trip I contacted the 180sx Social Club Instagram account which is run by @Masachin.180sx. I wanted to know if there would be any meets during our stay, but unfortunately there were none. But Masachin-San proposed that we hold a small meet and chat on the day before we leave, he told me not to expect too many people to show up, but surprisingly a few did!

I took some photos of the cars there, and Masachin-San made a video for his YouTube channel. You can find the link to that video below.

Big thank you goes to Masachin-San for putting on this chill meet!

We enjoyed the rest of the day in Odaiyba, which is where the meet was, going to a carting track not too far off. next day was the last day in Japan, so we took it easy and stayed at the hotel packing and getting ready for the long flight back home.

Japan has met my expectations and beyond, but it’s not the place that makes it so great, But the people. It’s filled with many ambitious, and enthusiastic people who love sharing their passion with anyone interested.

With that, I’ll once again thank everyone that made time for us, showed us around their place, and shared with us some of their stories and interest.

This has been an amazing trip, and one I’d definitely would love to repeat!

Thanks for reading.

-Malek